‘American Idol’ recap: Jeremy Rosado heads home

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‘American Idol’ was billing the first single-elimination episode of Season 11 as ‘the guys versus the girls,’ but really, it all came down to just a couple of disappointed young singers -– Jeremy Rosado and Elise Testone -- waiting sadly as three over-styled, hyperbolically inclined celebrity judges weighed their fates.

Ultimately, it was Rosado, whose voice regularly moves Jennifer Lopez to tears, who was sent home. And I do have to hand it to Lopez -- at least she was man enough (if Randy Jackson can address women as ‘dude’ and ‘man,’ why can’t the rest of us use the terms as loosely?) to do the job herself, managing to deliver the bad news by framing it as good news.

Having been put in the unenviable spot of choosing between these two singers by America (curse you, America!), Lopez took a deep breath and said, ‘We’re gonna save Elise.’

And so it was goodbye, Jer-Bear, whom we had been told repeatedly had a gigantic, huggable heart, but whose singing apparently didn’t do much for the vast majority of us.

Perhaps Rosado’s elimination would have come as more of a shock (though probably not that much more) had Ryan Seacrest not asked Steven Tyler (or ‘Steve’ as Mary J. Blige called him following her performance -– guess Mary didn’t see the ‘Idol’ episode last season in which Tyler snapped at Lopez for failing to articulate his name in full) which of the four bottom contestants -– Rosado, Jermaine Jones, Testone and Shannon Magrane -- he thought was expendable.

Tyler deliberated for maybe a second, then, without seeming to move a facial muscle, croaked a single word as if he were an evil witch we’d stumbled on stirring a cauldron in a dank forest, ‘Jeremy.’

Tyler’s fellow fates were only moderately more lively, though they did manage a standing O after last year’s runner-up, Lauren Alaina, strode around the stage looking older, thinner and much more confident (she didn’t even miss a beat when her ear monitor bonked her in the forehead!) and singing her single ‘Georgia Peaches,’ a song that must have been a secret tribute to Seacrest, whom you may remember she used to call ‘Peaches.’ Only Seacrest seemed to be truly enjoying the proceedings, as he delivered a few choice fake-outs -– ‘America did not like what they saw,’ he told Colton Dixon, then added, after a pause, ‘They loved it. Have a seat!’ -– and damned people to the stools of doom, only to snatch some of them back nearly as fast.

Seacrest had only just completed the bottom three boys (Rosado, Jones and -– somewhat surprisingly -– Joshua Ledet) and girls (Testone, Erika Van Pelt and -– not at all surprisingly -– Magrane) when he turned to the cameras and said, ‘Find out who faces the fire and find out who’s safe … like Erika and Joshua.’

Yes, folks, Seacrest said as he ushered the relived Van Pelt and Ledet back to the safe side, ‘on this show anything can happen,’ if by ‘anything’ you mean muddling through a not very startling elimination process.

Anyhow, though I personally would have preferred to see Magrane sent home, or Jones, who, despite his ‘gentle giant’ rep seems to be growing more and more combative, I probably won’t miss Rosado, though I’m sure he’s just as lovely as they say. Neither will I miss all the gushing and dreamy looks he elicits from Lopez. And I’m glad the judges chose to save Testone, who definitely has more potential to turns things around in the competition.

Plus, at least there will again be someone to answer the calls of all those sick people dialing in to the infectious diseases clinic Rosado worked at until his big ‘Idol’ break. Poor neglected things.

Are you sad to see Rosado go?

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-- Amy Reiter